Barack Obama’s Fantasy Island

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“The delusion of power also appears to provide an escape for middle-class Negroes from the world of reality which pierces through the world of make-believe of the black bourgeoisie.The positions of power which they occupy in the Negro world often enable them to act autocratically towards other Negroes, especially when they have the support of the white community.In such cases the delusion of power may provide an escape from their frustrations.It is generally, however, when middle-class Negroes hold positions enabling them to participate in the white community that they seek in the delusion of power an escape from their frustrations.

Although their position may be only a “token” of the integration of the Negro into American life, they will speak and act as if they were part of the power structure of American society.Negro advisors who are called into counsel by whites to give advice about Negroes are especially likely to find an escape from their feelings of inferiority in the delusion of power.”

The passing of actor Ricardo Montalban last month has reminded me of the power of fantasy and delusion.Portraying the fictional Mr. Roark, the owner of a mystical FantasyIsland where people paid munificent sums to live out their fantasies, Montalban became an icon of the seventies and eighties and for me, the personification of an era fixated on the make-believe of Ronald Reagan’s right-wing conservatism.Tall, elegant and regal, Ricardo Montalban possessed a rich baritone and perfect diction.In the late seventies, the Mexican-born actor was the “happy darkie” white America needed to facilitate their fantasies.Today, we have a tall, elegant and regal African American President with a rich baritone and perfect diction to fulfill that function.

The historic election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States has fueled some troubling delusions about the nature of power in this country and the role of African people in running it.It ain’t what some of y’all think it is.

Montalban said of the iconic series FantasyIsland:

What is appealing is the idea of attaining the unattainable and learning from it. Once you obtain a fantasy it becomes a reality, and that reality is not as exciting as your fantasy. Through the fantasies you learn to appreciate your own realities.

Blackfolks have been stumblin’ around for the last two months as if we landed on Mr. Roark’s FantasyIsland.Metaphorically speaking, we’ve attained the seemingly unattainable fantasy of electing a Black President. Now, we’re about to enter the stage where the reality of Obama’s election won’t be as exciting as our collective fantasies. It is up to us to use this surreal event to appreciate the racist, imperialist reality of the world we still live in.

Let me be clear. We ain’t running nothing up in here. We ain’t now and won’t be after the inauguration. Don’t get caught up in the delusion of power that Frazier wrote about or get any wild ideas about the real status of the Negro in American society. The white corporate power structure ain’t relinquished control of a damn thing, shug.

The View co-host, Sherri Shepherd, moved me to tears after the election when she retold how she would be able to tell her son that because of Barack Obama, there were no longer any limitations on the aspirations of black men in this country.We could do and be anything we wanted.Sherri tapped into the powerful flood of emotions that flowed as I wept with millions of people watching Barack Obama solemnly claim the Presidency.

What Sherri said was raw—her pain jumped out of the screen.What she said felt real, but after the emotions subsided and I allowed myself the space to critically think and evaluate what I’d seen and heard over the course of the campaign, I knew immediately that it wasn’t true no matter how I longed for it to be. We can be many things, more than ever before, but I am still waiting on whether a Negro can be a progressive president.

Sherri’s claim is synonymous with the historic battle of African people in this country to be freed from the stigma of slavery and subjugation.It is what we’ve always demanded and what we’ve historically been denied.Barack Obama’s “victory” changed nothing in that respect.The battle for equality and economic justice continues.

The Price of Admission

Barack Obama writes in Dreams of My Father about the advice given by a black mentor and father figure:

“You’re just like the rest of these young cats out here.All you know is that college is the next thing you’re supposed to do.And the people who are old enough to know better, who fought all those years for your right to go to college—they’re just so happy to see you in there that they won’t tell you the truth.The real price of admission.”

“And what’s that?”

“Leaving your race at the door,” he said.“Leaving your people behind.”“…Understand something, boy.You’re not going to college to get educated.You’re going to get trained.

They’ll train you to want what you don’t need. They’ll train you to manipulate words so they don’t mean anything anymore. They’ll train you to forget what it is that you already know.They’ll train you so good, you’ll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that sh*t.They’ll give you a corner office and invite you to fancy dinners, and tell you you’re a credit to your race. Until you want to actually start running things, and they’ll yank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you’re a nigger just the same.”

Barack Obama understood from the beginning what the price of admission was for the U.S. Senate and the Presidency.He paid in full.What was the price?It was the unconditional acceptance of ruling class demands and an uncritical embrace of neoliberalism and globalization. The price of this bourgeoisie fantasy, if we knew what it really was, would be a price that most blackfolks would be unwilling to pay.

Barack Obama cannot embody the aspirations of the African Diaspora because he is the president of the United States.As such, he is a tool of the corporate power structure that controls our country and the top spokesman for the ruthless neo-colonialism that oppresses the majority of African people through despotic institutions like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization.

It’s time to grow up and wake up, black people.Deep down, we all know damn good and well what the deal is.It is time to snap out of the fantasy.

Africa Action, the oldest black-run lobby in D.C. that’s half-way decent in fighting for the rights of the entire African Diaspora succinctly summarizes the real obstacles to black self-determination:

Africa‘s massive external debt burden is the single biggest obstacle to the continent’s development and to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The over $200 billion that African countries owe to foreign creditors represents a crippling load that undermines economic and social progress. The All-Africa Conference of Churches has called this debt “a new form of slavery, as vicious as the slave trade”.

The albatross of illegitimate debt diverts money directly from spending on health care, education and other important needs. While most people in Africa live on less than $2 per day, African countries are forced to spend almost $14 billion each year servicing old, illegitimate debts to rich country governments and their institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Over the past two decades, African countries have paid out more in debt service to foreign creditors than they have received in development assistance or in new loans.

Much of Africa‘s foreign debt is illegitimate in nature, having been incurred by unrepresentative and despotic regimes, mainly during the era of Cold War patronage. Loans were made to corrupt leaders who used the money for their own personal gain, often with the full knowledge and support of lenders. These loans did not benefit Africa‘s people. More generally, many Africans question the notion of an African “debt” to the U.S. and European countries after centuries of exploitation. They ask, “Who really owes whom?”

Yet, despite the social and economic costs of this massive outflow of resources from the world’s poorest region, the wealthy creditors of Africa‘s debts continue to insist these debts be repaid.…The U.S. is the single largest shareholder in the World Bank and IMF, the institutions to which most of Africa‘s debts are owed. As such, it holds major influence over the international response to Africa‘s debt crisis.

Barack Obama campaigned on doing nothing meaningful to alleviating Africa’s crushing debt.His official position commits him to the IMF/WORLD BANK shell game of exclusionary rules and mealy-mouthed guarantees that continue to bleed the continent dry, leaving it impoverished, and beset with skyrocketing infant mortality rates, declining life expectancy and writhing under the weight of pandemic levels of AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

“…Are designed to reduce consumption in developing countries and to redirect resources to manufacturing exports for the repayment of debt. This has caused overproduction of primary products and a precipitous fall in their prices. It has also led to the devastation of traditional agriculture and to the emergence of hordes of landless farmers in virtually every country in which the World Bank and IMF operate.

Food security has declined dramatically in all Third World regions, but in Africa in particular. Growing dependence on food imports, which is the lot of sub-Saharan Africa, places these countries in an extremely vulnerable position. They simply do not have the foreign exchange to import enough food, given the fall in export prices and the need to repay debt.

Basic conditionalities of the IMF-World Bank include drastic cuts in social expenditures, especially in health and education. According to the UN Economic Commission for Africa, expenditures on health in IMF-World Bank programmed countries declined by 50 percent during the 1980s, and spending on education declined by 25 percent. Similar trends are evident in all other Southern regions.

IMF-World Bank programs come with other requirements. Governments are generally forced to remove subsidies to the poor on basic foodstuffs and services such as rice and maize, water and electricity. Tax systems are made more repressive, and real wage rates are allowed to fall sharply.

..But the greatest failure of these programs is to be seen in their impact on the people. Using figures provided by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, it has been estimated that at least six million children under five years of age have died each year since 1982 in Africa, Asia and Latin America because of the anti-people, even genocidal, focus of IMF World Bank SAPs.

The fanatical insistence on a “post-racial” reality is fuc*ing ludicrous.It represents a willful ignorance that cannot be defended when any cursory examination of empirical data on globalization and income inequality is undertaken. The election of Barack Obama changes nothing for the black victims of globalization and neoliberalism. Moreover, it is a disingenuous act of token integration by the power structure. The browning of America inevitably means that some coloredfolks need to front for the power structure to camouflage the predatory nature of American imperialism and give the illusion of inclusion.

You could see the change his assumption of power wrought after he solemnly addressed the nation on Election night. His establishment cabinet, the continued no strings attached Wall Street Bailout and his unconscionable, silent complicity in the face of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza. The first Negro has completely nailed his part as America’s stern father figure dispensing status quo medicine.No matter what he does and no matter how many times he betrays the African Diaspora, blackfolks will make excuses for his departures from progressive principle and will highlight the admirable aspects of his character as a devoted husband and father that a desperate black community seems to need to repair the brokenness endured in a country weaned on white supremacy and the deliberate destruction of the black family.

Mary Mitchell, a black columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, is a prime example.In her first appearance on the establishment’s top televised salon, Meet the Press, she said:

You have someone who did what he was supposed to do. He got a good education, he married his sweetheart, he’s a father for his children. That’s the kind of image the African-American community needs right now.

I hate to think that we’re so desperate for the validation of whitefolks and for appropriate black role models that we’d accept anything an establishment Negro President does at the behest of his corporate puppet masters.

DON’T HATE THE PLAYA; HATE THE GAME

It is difficult to muster the energy to demonize or dislike Barack Obama after being inundated by endless streams of positive, empty propaganda spoon fed by a compliant corporate press. However, as blackfolks, we need to stand ready to rebuke the President we claim to love so much when he inevitably falls off the wagon of progressive principle.Our shared African heritage and the uniqueness of this moment in time do not constitute valid reasons to give Obama a pass.Despite the laughable and despicable efforts of the right-wing to portray our President as a “terrorist” and “secret Muslim,” Barack Obama is an establishment politician that sold out a long time ago and that makes him a “safe Negro” in the minds of the imperial power structure.

What I am saying is not meant to turn you against the President, dislike him in any way or fail to honor and celebrate this remarkable achievement. Hate is so counterproductive. What I’m saying today is meant to get you to think critically, evaluate what his Administration does objectively, and demand that Barack actually becomes the progressive president he fooled you into believing he would be. In short, don’t hate the playa; hate the game.

From the Urban Dictionary:

Do not fault the successful participant in a flawed system; try instead to discern and rebuke that aspect of its organization, which allows or encourages the behavior that has provoked your displeasure.

One day in the distant future, the first African American President will pass away after living a long life, just as Ricardo Montalban did, and hopefully, the President be remembered for the progressive, concrete achievements of his era and not for some ridiculous bourgeois fantasy concocted by a crooked corporate power structure to disguise it’s racist imperialism.

We’re not a progressive country. We’re a fundamentally conservative country. We’ve never had a progressive president in the way that Skep is defining progressive. What’s also fundamentally true is that black folks aren’t progressive. We are about as conservative a people as exists in this country. So I guess I’m a little confused about what delusion we’re buying into with our enthusiasm over Obama?

Most of us don’t do the critical thinking necessary to qualify as a progressive, but there is a “black consensus” of political thought and opinion that is decidedly left of center. The Black Agenda Report and the Black Commentator have written extensively about it. Most blackfolks can’t hang with same sex marriage, but they do understand the necessity for the Stimulus package and for doing something about the mortgage meltdown. Most blackfolks were against the Iraq War and applauded President Obama for closing Guantanamo and believe that indefinite detention and torture is wrong.

I have been criticized for sounding like a sixties radical. I know I’m a little too dogmatic. But I also know that little has changed since then for the bulk of the African Diaspora and for those who have the misfortune of living in the “developing world.” I have a fundamental problem with any political leader whose orientation and program does nothing to change that dynamic.

As for delusions, I mean the delusion of power. We (blackfolks) control little, if anything. Our politicians are little more than marionettes that dance by the strings of corporate power. As happy as I would like to feel, I can’t turn my mind off because a handsome and stylish black couple inhabit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. My favorite bumper sticker is one I first saw in High School at a debate tournament–yes, I was a debator. It said “Question Authority.” Well, Trip, that’s who I am, it’s what I do.

As someone who knows, the whole initiative for the “African diaspora” is a complete farce…a huge joke! It is another avenue for self-serving/aggrandizing blacks of all stripes to continue the exploitation of legitimate issues for their own personal advancement. Its simply a sad “find a niche” effect pretty much-

Blacks screw each other over again and again wherever they are to be found – The situation in Africa is no different. A handful of Africans continue to sell out their brothers for hefty Swiss accounts and somehow that is Barack Obama’s fault or his problem to fix inspite of the HUGE mess your America is in and Obama has inherited?!

Half of these United States now look and feel like parts of a bloody 3rd world country and yet Obama in your opinion must immediately begin to cater to the “African Diaspora” when you guys have absolutely no clue how America is going to fix it’s own problems here at home-

As I type this I shake my head in disbelief at this post SB because it’s so bloody consistent with eveything the world has grown to understand, despise (and for those who cheer for and mercilessly live to exploit the crabs in a bucket mentality of blacks folks) love about black people especially here in America. You guys are so mired in the vestiges of self hate, self debasement and self denigration you can’t even see the trees for the forest! You’ve fought so long you don’t even know when and how to quit – even after the enemies are down…you turn on your own.

You spend the better part of this post railing against Barack Obama (just 31/2 weeks into his presidency by the way); and then after pretty much emasculating, demonizing and dismissing him as worthless and useless and less of a man, you offer this completely contradictory/incongruous end to your post about not wising to demonize him etc.

You insist finally that:

“What I am saying is not meant to turn you against the President, dislike him in any way or fail to honor and celebrate this remarkable achievement. Hate is so counterproductive. What I’m saying today is meant to get you to think critically, evaluate what his Administration does objectively, and demand that Barack actually becomes the progressive president he fooled you into believing he would be. In short, don’t hate the playa; hate the game.”

Your post does not in any way inspire critical or objective thinking – Not for any intelligent, well-adjusted, functional, decent person – it does not.

It actually screams throw up your hands and go home you’ve lost already…

This post only reveals the sad mindset that ensures the continued handicap and paralysis of blacks in America. The psychological crippling that continues to ensure that your people will always pack up and go home everytime because over and over again there are those like you however well-intentioned or smart you think you are, that will always get carried away and overkill.

In a bid to showcase your smarts and writing skills, you resort to belittling, demeaning and disparaging a man who has for all intents and purposes made a huge positive dent in the psyche of blacks beyond these shores. These blacks unlike you and many here in America and contrary to what you think, are very aware that President Obama does not wield a magic wand and will not fix all that ails the world; but they unlike you understand that for what it’s well worth, this ascension has been a feat in itself and the work itself because of his and Michelle’s race will pose many a challenge.

Barack Obama like every over-achieving black professional understands that he must exceed the expectations of this office. He understands the task before him and especially that his success or lack of it will ultimately define the future of the American electorates openess to giving any other black person a stab at this ever again.

In order to even register he must be exceptional and deliver above and beyond his predecessors-
He will always be held to unbelievable standards by not only the world but by people like you who think he can reverse or alter hundreds of years worth of statutory and establishment “rules” in 3 weeks – This in a country that is alreday up in arms because he took his jacket off in the oval office! Are you kidding me SB?!

I however have no doubt that Barack Obama will be exceptional and one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had – But I know that he will do it as intelligently and carefully as he has mostly executed his role.

So SB, when you write please do so responsibly – Barack Obama even if black and lacking in your eyes, is now afterall The President of these United States of America and with that comes a certain respect that should and must be accorded him.

You do some of your more uninformed readers a great disservice and plant some irreversible seeds of negative posturing when you indulge in your bit of theatrics and over reaction; reducing and subjecting this man and his ascension to the typical insults, petty musings and rants of many a black on their fellow black – no better than Michael Steele et al.

In the end however, you just might want to keep this up – who knows maybe you fall into that category who’d rather have anyone else but the “token negro” in office – Makes sense you might say because then blacks can continue to fall all over themselves in pity as they lay the blame solely on the white man – It’s much easier I suppose-

And in the end Sarah Palin might as well be your next president and I’d like to see where you start with your rants and demands of her.

I appreciate your passion and welcome your comments. I appreciate you most for your honesty, I value brutal honesty above all. However, I must respectfully disagree. Obama has earned every ounce of my criticism, no matter what you may think. Yes, he has been President for just three weeks, but in that time his Justice Department sided against the victims of George W. Bush’s terrorist rendition program from having the right to bring their torturers to justice in a court of law. I have a fundamental problem with that. Rachel Maddow and Amy Goodman did exhaustive pieces about this on their shows last week. I agree with them. These are not anti-black right-wingers, but progressives of conscience.

Getting elected President is HUGE, AMAZING, MIRACULOUS, but what good is it if you close off the courts from redressing the claims of people who have been illegally tortured by this government.

Getting elected President is HUGE, AMAZING, MIRACULOUS, but what good is it if you launch missle strikes in Pakistan that kill innocent civilians, some of whom were children, like Obama did the first week in office. If the American Government can indiscriminately bomb people and kill civilians, what hope do we have of this Administration reining in the Israeli’s when they do the same thing to Palestinians in Gaza?

Getting elected President is HUGE, AMAZING, MIRACULOUS, but what good is it if you have no program for debt relief for the developing World so that it can feed, clothe, educate, and employ her people by industrialized world standards? The infrastructre of First World wealth is imperialism. Why can’t you see that? The dysfunction of the developing world is by design, Chi. Any close reading of Nkrumah, Lummumba, Rodney, or Fanon will tell you that.

The reason that I sound like a sixties radical is because little substantive has changed since then except for the widening gulf of income inequality and militarism that we have facilitated and subsidized by our tax dollars. Surely you see that, other progressives like Noam Chomsky and Edward Zaid, and Howard Zinn do. Why can’t you?

The President is a politician with flaws, Chi. The fact that he is black is irrlevant. If you read my work from the beginning, you’ll find that my skepticism has a long history. I’ve always wanted to see an African American elected President and the establishment has used that desire to blunt criticism. I conceed the point that I am conflicted. I want to feel good about this president, but I can’t close my eyes to departures from principle.

In High School, I was an active debator (yes, I am a nerd) and the catchphrase that we lived by was “Question Authority.” I do it everyday because it is who I am.

I agree with many of your specific criticisms of Obama and would add a few more. I am not the least bit opposed to your criticisms of him. Anyone with the kind of power a US President has, needs to be scrutinized and criticized. I guess I’m still confused about your insinuation that black people are not as inherently prone to the perversions of power as anyone else. I mean, if black Americans ran the show—in some parallel universe for example—do you really think things would be any different? We’re every bit as capitalistic, self engrossing, susceptible to lies, prone to bigotry…..as anyone else. There is absolutely nothing about Obama’s skin color that should relieve him of the burdens of being selfish and human. That being said, while he deserves your criticisms, Rachel Maddow’s, Amy Goodman’s and my own, I am crystal clear that this man is a damn sight better than the sort of folks who typically occupy the White House. I know that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hold him accountable for his shortcomings, but to me it means that I am still grateful for his ascendancy. He is not the corporate shill that you describe in his blogs and neither is he the Messiah so many of us wish him to be.

The IMF is indeed the enemy of the people and Obama is indeed in the position of advocating they continue plundering the world’s resources. What’s encouraging is that the beast that is U.S. imperialism is getting weaker (though no less dangerous) with time. Inreasingly large sections of Latin America and Africa are rejecting this model and creating their own, more sustainable and benevolent courses. It seems the rest of the world is striving for a new level of maturity and is bent on “leaving childish things behind” as Mr. Obama suggested.

SB…you spoke some grand truths here. The symbolism of a person of color as President of the United States is powerful, but ultimately meaningless without a substantive break from the past. I am realistic, but also a bit more optimistic if only because this system has been so damaged by the excesses of its own rapacious nature that it has to be overhauled and remade in order to be saved. A great opportunity is before is. It’s up to us to hold feet to the fire and make sure it isn’t squandered.

Criticize and question authority as much and as often as you like SB, but do it constructively, intelligently and without resorting to denigration and pettiness-

The fact that Barack Obama has not set an agenda based on YOUR priorities after 3 weeks in office does not a failed presidency make. Rachel Maddow and Amy Goodman both of whom I watch and read by the way, aren’t always as unbiased and unaffected in their fervor for what they too deem their priorities – (For Rachel the Prop. 8 outcome and use of Pastor Warren for the invocation at the inaugural believe it or not, is still an unforgotten and unforgivable slight for which she blames Obama and the grudges held will manifest itself periodically in subtle and not so subtle ways in some of her commentary as she seeks to bring Obama down a peg or too.)

“Liberals” with hurt feelings are notorious for eating their own alive – just like blacks are wont to.

Your country is in DIRE STRAITS! Obama has inherited any number of toxic and dangerous knots and mazes left by the previous administration that must now be very carefully manuevered, negotiated and untangled; Many DELIBERATELY set and interlinked minefields that must be carefully negotiated and deactivated – That is what 8 years of the Cheney/Rove craven and diabolical minds dreamed up and gave us.

Listen to Cheney and you get the sense that they set up some pretty nasty surprises for Obama in anticipation of what the know to be the liberal agenda especially regarding the war. I won’t be surprised if a contrived “terror attack” happens on Obama’s watch just so the Cheney Bush folks can feel vindicated and yell “see, we told you!”

It would be extremely naive to rush into spontaneous dismantling of any of these 8 plus years setup without fully understanding the landmines set and potential repercussions. In the interim like it or not, there is a truly emboldened network out there, albeit borne and strengthened as a result of the previous administrations poor and dangerous foreign policies, but never the less still out there posing a serious threat to your country.

“HUGE, AMAZING, MIRACULOUS” tends to dismiss the feelings associated with Obama’s win by many who support him as somehow superficial, shallow and lacking in the clear understanding of what this job truly entails – rather presumptuous and condescending on your part SB!

Thanks to George Bush and his team, America has in 8 years literally squandered all of its moral authority, overall goodwill, but most importantly its wealth! on a war that has in it’s fall-out created amongst other things, real enemies and problems only previously imagined in the minds of the paranoid –

These new beat “terror groups” grown in response to the Cheney/Bush wars are problems Obama will have to deal with while dealing with the hard fact that America cannot pay it’s own bills let alone take care or negotiate those on behalf of third wold countries! We are a huge joke in the international community and until President Obama carefully works America back to its former place of respect in the worlds eyes and fixes our numerous fiscal problems back here at home, he lacks the clout or werewithall to affect any meaningful change in debt ridden African countrys or effectively advocate for the programs you tout.

I am steeped in the works and books of all those you reference; (Kwame Nkrumah was a good friend of my father’s.) But you ignore the extensive role greed and self-empowerment continue to play in the dynamics of African politics and government – And until mind blowing corruption in government ceases in Africa for instance, no program to “feed, clothe, educate, and employ her people by industrialized world standards” will ever work. Ask Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, a World Bank V.P who went back to serve as Finance Minister of her native Nigeria. She suceeded in helping them reconstruct and clean up their debt, but was cleverly outwitted by her government following her efforts at establishing a transparent and logical fiscal structure – Today, just 4 years later, Nigeria is back in debt greater than ever before!

There are Africans whose personal wealth far exceed that of Bill Gates, but they never make Forbes lists because the origins of their wealth are “questionable” by the double standards established by those who make the call – But they exist nontheless these African billionaires, and some of them have contributed extensively to Bill Clinton’s library and “global initiatives”- These are Africans who have plundered their various countries wealth and assumed them as theirs! These folks can singlehandedly repay the debts of their various nations support programs, and still remain billionaires!

Of course Barack Obama is flawed! He is human afterall! But in that same regard, I do not hold him to any higher standard than I would any other president; but that’s what’s so offensive about your posts SB, because wittingly or unwittingly you absolutely do! You hold him to higher standards all the while subjecting him to the lowest and most base in treatment and respect.

I also do not find that his skin color is relevant – however, you argue endlessly for your black ideology which you feel that he fails to understand or embrace because he was not begotten of a slave – which in your opinion disqualifies him somehow as your preferred candidate for ironically “African American” president.

Your posts do not reflect a “conflicted” mind – It mostly screams, petty, angry, envious and suspiciously similar to those of other black supporters of other black politicians such as Cynthia Mckinnie and Michael Steele. When will blacks learn that as a rather small minority, they cannot demean each other in order to be heard – You instead end up trivialising and emasculating your entire black representation. Disagree without demeaning or disparaging! Your response to my post was so much more effective to your argument than your original post by the way- (And that’s one of the reasons Obama is successful; he elevates the political discourse for what it’s worth!)

I personally do not think you sound like a “sixties radical”. On the contrary, you sound more like the new breed of dissenting blacks who will find fault with any and every thing. They hide behind “black ideology” and continue to find some justification to slam those who have at least ventured out to start a dialogue and make a real difference-

If people like Obama don’t represent your ideals and simply aren’t doing it for you – Stop slamming and lobbing insults and angry missives…Do it! Be it!

Go run for something SB…Anything! Don’t wait for Obama to make the change you want. Be it! Go do it for yourself – Put yourself out there, run on your platform and if we like it we’ll support it and you all the way. Sitting in judgement while dissecting the efforts of a man who’s ventured out does absolutely nothing for your cause.

It takes sheer guts and chutzpah to do what Obama’s done and is doing; And I, like many smart people, are routing for him and this country to succeed!

There is a say that a man is doomed if the members of hisr own household start tearing him apart in public.

The members of your own household can point out your flaws, repremand and punish you when necessary. However, their criticsm of your flaws must not leave the the unfriendly next door neighbor. It is easier destroy a family by using a member of his own family.

The exploitation of Africans both here in diaspora and in the continent of Africa is the result our eagerness to hand over our own to the enemy for destruction or do the destruction ourselves. We seem to be very good at this work of art!

“No matter what he does and no matter how many times he betrays the African Diaspora, blackfolks will make excuses for his departures from progressive principle and will highlight the admirable aspects of his character as a devoted husband and father that a desperate black community seems to need to repair the brokenness endured in a country weaned on white supremacy and the deliberate destruction of the black family.”

::

I suppose you have to start somewhere.

Here’s hoping identity politics will die with the end of the cultural phase of the Civil War.

Skepical Brother, thanks. I appreciate your critical eye and honest analysis. I think your writing here is the first critique of PBO that makes me think, and by no means am I a Kool-aid drinker. I commend and support Barack Obama on his accomplishments and am very proud that he’s our POTUS.

It’s refreshing to read your commentary. I didn’t get a sense of spitefullness and envy, just the reality of truth.

“I guess I’m still confused about your insinuation that black people are not as inherently prone to the perversions of power as anyone else. I mean, if black Americans ran the show—in some parallel universe for example—do you really think things would be any different? We’re every bit as capitalistic, self engrossing, susceptible to lies, prone to bigotry…..as anyone else.”

I don’t know how you read that into anything I wrote. I absolutely understand that if the shoe was on the other foot nothing would really be different. We would be the neocolonial oppressors and that wouldn’t be a good thing. I am not one of those fools that believes African people are morally superior.

I am not as upset with Obama anymore because I figured out I was displacing my emotions–deflecting. After awhile I realized he was very up front about who he was and eventhough I caught on, others refused to accept the reality he did not refuse. He showed us how compartmentalized, packaged, and compromised he is. He never lied. Others lied for him in his defense when he was confident about his every strive.

I knew he was not like me and it hurt. I realized he represents the majority of our people now who I have nothing in common with other than our genotypes. I wanted to hold grievances against him because he was not like me. I knew he does not feel like I do and yet he would gamble and risk. He does not know like I do. And that much he knows that I do, he does not see the worth in Black Liberation and Empowerment. He’s White like that in understanding the science of the situation: we are doomed holding to these fantasies of liberation. Obama knows there are no happy endings and life is not fair. Yet and still, he used us to get where he needed to go. His nappy hair and dark skin afforded him the luxuries to be the Exceptional Negro because he could not tweak being White. He was stuck with us and had to learn to love it. I don’t think he loves it. He is using his Whiteness to redeem his Black genotype and the stigma of being Black. If he came out lighter and could pass, I think he would have and there would be no Michelle. His emotional and structural DNA shows he is Darwinian first and foremost.

We are so needy to believe someone powerful like him really, really, really wanted to be us. But the us who he is is not even the people whose shoulders he stand on and co-opt. He and his middle-class Templars in their self-righteousness to think the Black Elite is what Dubois or Dr. King or Ida envisioned would be the custodians of our narrative.

I realized that what he did come to know that he did not want to carry in burden of longing for an equalizing redemption, he did not have to own. His White side does not need or want to reconcile. They want their legacies expunged and revised. He picked and choose on what he wanted to take away with in making himself “Black”. He studied us. He learned to simulate us. He learned what to say. He learned the right things to say and do to pass muster. I’ve never seen this before in a mulatto doing that much research and dedication to wanting to be “Black”. Usually it is some White despot or abandoned refugee that does not fit well in his or her Whiteness that understudies. But for him, to be mixed and to choose to be but not be truly progressive, that is the ominous result of a fucked up somebody.

He coasted in on our good-natured pride in his representation to stand up for us as a learned man but we did not see at first how much engineering what pre-existing and depended on our ignorance. Also it depended on us to refuse to believe anyone would go to the extremes to try to adopt Blackness to then co-opt that shit in picking and choosing how to make himself.

I realized late on that he wanted to merge his Whiteness with his nappy gene-code and his dark skin. He wanted to redeem his darkness because it was not going anywhere. He could not shake it. So instead of adopting even his father’s heritage, he stole ours. He knew we were so giving and stupid. We would not think anyone would be that maniacal.

I had to realize that we wanted to give him honorary Blackness and an honorary Black Card because he freely volunteered to profess to want to be a part of us. We are not used to that. We are used to the opposite. But this was a whole lot tricky. He wanted to be profess to be us to keep us beholden to steering us to be “good performers” like him to get ahead. This man read Phillip Roth. He is the living Human Stain.

It took me awhile to realize he fooled us…me. And when I found out, I did not want to admit he fooled us. It sounds so devious. I sound like a traitor for being suspicious and aware. I know to some I sound like I’m egocentrically wanting to be omnipotent and omniscient in ruling who and what is Blackness. I did not want to say it/this because people who are “not so Black like him” either but are equally as lucky and connected with some power, they hate for other Blacks to peel their skins away and expose them. I don’t know how long we are going to use the excuse of shaming each other for calling this out when it is the rouse of the middle-class strivers to defend themselves to reinvent themselves apart from their origination but to still try to and successful boast they are “Black” as if it is then monolithic. We are not a monolith and we need to discuss that we really are not all tribesman. We just have brown skin in common at this point now. They use the defense of how rudimentary judging on being Black enough as reasons we are divided when it is a cover to defend them and deflect possible attention.

Being educated and civilized, we want to showcase how texturized and dimensional we are by not admitting that there is a such thing in having a measure of idealized ideology of Blackness that could be measured. It seems so archaic so we shy away from admitting that sometimes so many of us are not that “Black” and nor can we explain “what (does) that mean”? It is all relative and it is very nuanced but Obama ain’t Black like me as well as most Brothers and Sisters are not. We just shun away from saying that of the latter because the reality is, more of us are like him or want to be and were waiting for a compromised savior to legitimize their desires to not be so “Black” and as Progressive as their senses lobby in rationale. We rather not find out how many of our people really ain’t our people. We keep refusing to look destructive in addressing it but it is inevitable now. It’s so obvious. Go to any college campus or hipster hangout. I hate going to Busboys and Poets. I hate the bourgie Blacks that think they are our saving grace. The “conscious” Blacks that are not Black like me. I have cousins I grew up with that are not Black like me. I have friends I no longer speak to because they wanted to be middle-class strivers that forgot. It’s everywhere. It’s an epidemic. It’s more of our people than we can deal with. So it seemed better and easier to deride Obama for failing to know better. He is like the consensus. He just was bolder about not giving a damn to take the risks to sell out. So many did not have the nerve to go all the way until they saw that he did it. That is the referendum. This is the evolution.

Our people’s hearts don’t want to be progressive and Obama nor Michelle wants that much liberation in progressivism. Sometimes I just think Obama looked at it like Darwin would have and realized that the only way to survive and feel redemption in the power structure was but to submit to selling out. Those who do are rewarded. Their phenotype has a greater chance to exist without worry of . They are not like us. Most people that came to your blog is not. I have been trying to nudge at this without looking like the cantankerous, divisive trouble-maker but just as the real phophets in the Bible lead their lives doing, they put it down which pissed the people off. They were too shamed of their heavy-handedness for not sugar-coating to make it easy for people to swallow about themselves.

Obama just co-opts legitimacy of being Black but he’s not Black Like Me. I realized that I and others who are progressive have found it easier to chide him when who we are really upset with is our selves, our family, and our people who have wanted more compromised lives while still wanting to cry “victim”. We are the sick sycophants that supported him to be who he is. We are the people that exalt him and Michelle as heroes when they had never done anything truly benevolent, visionary, and innovative before the candidancy. He wrote books. That was not a sacrifice or an expedition in building. It’s all illusions. We try to help them rewrite their narratives to market our needs to see them as heroes. He knew our weaknesses to rather complain about liberation to still want others to exploit us.

I can’t be as mad at him anymore for putting in all the work to fool us. It was masterful engineering. I have to be honest with myself about who my peers are in that we are not all the same in how we are Black. No one wants to talk about this because it is shameful and taboo. We fear being labeled the cancer that betrays another Black for calling them out and challenging. We hate that there is no bar of measure that exists but we know everyone knows there are defacto bars of measure. We like to use the defense to hope it keeps us linked but we are already dismantled and uprooted just faking from our own compartmentalized, self-interested frames of reference.

It was Obama who said at the South Carolina primary that Dr. King would not support any of them (three) but I would rather give him the Shirley Chisolm test. She would not be so proud of him and she would not like him. If you studied her, she would not have excused him.

We don’t want progressive politics. My family does not even know what it is. Most Blacks don’t even know. They only know the Democratics will save them.

I think Obama knows that life was not ever going to gift us a “happy” equalized ending in being more liberated in America. He choose to side with survival of the fittest instead of what we progressives are working for. And while he does this, he co-opts as well the identity of progressive politics because it is a drastic change from Bush.

He ain’t Black like me and I am not apologizing for saying it. I am not ashamed and I am not ashamed for saying that I can’t stand the Black Middle-Class. Now I know why Dr. King died depressed and was depressed the last few years of his life. He wrote about this type and what they did is grab the microphones to say this is what he wanted. Just because he was educated they kidnapped his legacy to say this in what our people have become is what Dr. King wanted and he would have been proud of Barack. Please!

There are so many young African American men and women caught in between succeeding and not succeeding right now, and the Oprahs, The Bill Cosbys, The Tiger Woods of the world could care less. The United Negro College Fund, that’s a joke. The NAACP is a political stepping stone at this point for its vaunted administration. And the governments of our black inner cities are so corrupt and insular (read: Detroit) that they are ripping off the very people they claim to represent.

It’s ironic that the original imperialist educational institutions of the world, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and Dartmouth are actually giving free educations now to the most qualified and needy–and that includes black people, now more than ever.

I’m not slapping down every member of the black middle class because there are good apples in every bunch, but if we are really to start succeeding as a people, the black middle class had better shed–and with the quickness–that amoral, fetishistic capitalist physiognomy of our antebellum oppressors and start being egalitarian and less fearful of losing what they have.

Well now I’m even more confused. Are you suggesting that black people should be more upset than we are? Be real brother. After 8 years of Bush, and 40 years of right wing nuttery, black folks, brown folks, white folks and purple folks are gonna need more than a month to sour on this man.

We should at the very least have some damn questions for Brother President. Like, “Who has been fired, courtmarshaled or otherwise held accountable for the bombing deaths of innocent Pakistani’s during the missile strike you ordered a few weeks ago.” And “What was the forecasted risk of collateral damage? How bout,”Did you make an honest assessment of the risk to civilians or did you just order the attacks based on whatever they put in front of you as a show of force that is clearly against international law?”

Realistically though, I undertand that blackfolks are still on cloud nine. We’ve never been here before and nothing has ever felt like this. Most of us are not ready to be critical even though the observant are wondering about Gregg, Geithner, and vetting Bredesen for HHS.

“don’t hate the playa, hate the game”
SB you sound like you hatin’ the playa. What you’ve just outlined is the role of the NWO, New World Order(the Game). You have also identified the barrel that many black folks are trapped in.
The barrel being the African diaspora expectations of there own, after they are successful enough to escape it. Its time for Black folks to grow up and let go of childish expectations of what a Black president is “supposed” to do. Its a job just like other jobs, you still have to do what people hired him to do, not just Black folks. Right now the US is in a world of hurt on several levels. But any forward thinking Nubian knew that these would be the circumstances that a Black person would be elected to be president, damn near the end. Jack Johnson, Joe Lewis, Jackie Robinson all probably had haters too but until you put yourself in a similar situation just appreciate the level of excellence necessary to put himself in that position. Expecting any Black leader to do everything Black folks want is silly, Barak didn’t run to be a Black president, he ran to be president of the United States, but there is room for excellence from other Black folks to address some of our glaring needs.

Well I guess I am a child because I did not expect Barack Obama to drop bombs on and kill innocent Pakistani civilians during his first week in office. In what sense does that adhere to Martin Luther King Jr’s dream. Stop making excuses for him when he does these things. Stop using our shared kinship as an excuse to support whatever he does. When you can answer the question regarding why he can be a militant supporter of the genocidial behavior of the Israeli Government and not supportive of African Debt relief, let me know. Let me know when it will be o.k. for a black president to support subsidizing any African nation in the same manner that we subsidize Israel.

I am a bit surprised by this post. Seems prior to the election, thoughts of this type never emerged on this site. And, those that presented such ideas were quickly and resoundly crushed and not always by you, thus my surprise. However, if you and many of the commenters that frequently post on this site would have openly spoke of what a president of the United States does and who the president represents there would be no sense of disappointment in the essence of this post. This is not about tearing down a Black president that has inherited a hellstorm of issues from the prior destroyer, but about stating the truth about the president of the United States and who he represents. No matter who would have won the presidency he or she would have fired missiles into someone’s village somewhere. This is the order of things no matter the gender or skin color of the president.

When we are awake, not under the spell of television media marketing hype we can see the light of day and would suffer no disapppointment in the actions of the president. Its time to mature into this system of thngs and ignore skin color, ignore gender and focus on the words and deeds of the person running for POTUS or any other seat or office for that matter, and make a decision based on their actions not their words. As long as the United States maintains the seat of the IMF/World Bank/World Trade Organization, whomever becomes the president will be thier puppet and front man.

Nobody said you were childish SB, far from it.
To be clearer, you don’t get to be president of the USA without a clear understanding of who you are working for: Surprise! its not for the benefit of African-Americans, our needs, or our problems. It is for the power structure that exists right now (NWO), an amalgamation of corporate and resource barons that have decided what the status quo will be. As a people, as an individual, all we really get out Obama being the president directly is the motivation it provides to obtain a similar level of excellence in solving our own problems. Other than that anything Obama does for blackfolks will be strictly incidental. I understand this going in. Do you expect sympathy from the Black cop? The Black mayor? The Black judge I know better than that. As a matter of fact I’m suspicious of the black cop, because I know his motivations,and it sure ain’t about my benefit. I will admit I have “spook-who-sat-by-the-door” fantasies, where Barak channels Huey Newton or Marcus Garvey, and shocks folks by supporting righteousness over political expediency. Our real issue is that most of our leaders have come out of the church or some religious organizations so we expect a Christ-like zeal to address the needs of our people and others, when they are just trying to keep their job or lifestyle. Brother Obama is not Christ, a Rev or from the Nation, he is a talented speaker and American politician whose character (Nobabiesmamadrama’s,etc.) and demeanor (smooth as silk) is honorable and whose color is placating to the rest of the world. I’m hopeful because he is a brotha, but I stopped expecting someone else to or a leader or my brotha to do the right thing, I’m just trying to do the right thing and speak truth long enough to make my difference in this world. Would Obama free the slaves? Probably not right away. But I understand that. He aint king of black folks, he’s president of the USA. Two different job descriptions, bro. peace

Chi, your comments were 100% spot on and are exactly what I have been thinking, but have been unable to put into words. Props on everything you said.

SB, I am a long time lurker and enjoy coming to your blog, but I must admit…putting the “Black Agenda Report” up as a leading progressive website really lost you a lot of cool points in my eyes (not that you care). I have been so disappointed with “black progressives” I’ve met who have been so critical of Barack Obama, crying and whining about why Obama hasn’t met THEIR expectations in the three weeks he’s been President, and whining about what is happening overseas when they are doing NOTHING to combat the genocide that is happening in Black communities right here at home. Black women are afraid to walk down the street in their own neighborhoods, little black girls are having their self worth and esteem trampled on every single day, little black boys are being lost in the system (educational, judicial, and child welfare), out of wedlock births are on the rise, black marriages are on the decline…the state of the black community is damn near in SHAMBLES, but all these “black progressives” wanna do is argue about why Obama isn’t gonna fix it. Or they wanna argue me down about how Obama “isn’t really black” and how he’s “just another corporate tool”.

Well at least Obama has the BALLS to put himself out there. I can respect someone who has the AUDACITY to get in front of the world and say “These are my ideas on how to fix this mess. You should elect me and let me handle it”. You ask these complaining Black progressives when they plan on running for office, NO ANSWER, which is always so amusing to me. They point to people like Cynthia McKinney as someone who could make a great President, but Cynthia is probably the biggest attention seeker I’ve ever seen. Someone as dynamic as she’s supposed to be should EASILY be able to win local election as a Green party member and create change there because we all know politics is local and personal. What is she doing? Riding on boats down the Gaza strip…get outta here with that mess. No disrespect to the people in the Middle East, but BLACK PEOPLE NEED YOU HERE CYNTHIA.

Like Chi said, if your ideas are so great, then get out there in your local elections. If you’re talking real solutions, PEOPLE WILL SUPPORT YOU. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But I can’t say that I’m surprised.

I certainly won’t try to convince you that all is well in the black community, since that is not the case. That being said, out of wedlock births are dramatically lower, crime rates are near historic lows, high school graduation rights have increased….I think we can be candid about the challenges our community faces, while also giving ourselves credit for the real progress that is being made. We seem mostly to leap towards the negative, often citing stats that are incorrect.

I wasn’t trying to overexaggerate or be overly dramatic in my post. I realize there are stats for everything. I guess I just believe that the problems in our communities really ARE that urgent. Sure they may not be as bad as previous years, but by no means do I think we’re in a place where we can fight someone else’s battles on the other side of the world.

There are issues right here in our own neighborhoods that need as much, if not MORE, attention as the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It is baffling to me how someone can come on the internet and get into arguments with people about foreign policy, but completely ignore the needs of the downtrodden people they see on the streets everyday. Do you think if the roles were reversed that the Israelis and Palestinians would come over here and intervene? I HIGHLY doubt it.

I’m just saying…I’d love to see these Angry Black Progressives get out in the streets and protest black on black violence for once. I’d love to see them run for public office on these progressive platforms that are supposed to be so amazing, yet be subject to the same scrutiny as the politicians THEY criticize. I wonder how many of them could stand strong in the face of that kind of criticism. Personally, I don’t think many of them could withstand it. It’s very easy to sit back and criticize Barack Obama in your comfy, heated house on your high tech computer while sippin’ lattes in your draws when you’re not in the public eye being held accountable for your beliefs.

Okay it looks like that we’re having some serious discussion about this issue of whether or not Brotha Obama is really authentic, and can reform the country for social change for the American people, with special emphasis on his own people, or whether he is just another corporate puppet for the White Supremacy lobby. I know we are living in a capitalistic society which oppresses all the American people with special enhanced oppression on black people, BUT, we do have a Black President which I know has a tremendous responsibility. Knowing the pattern of what SB describes as “White Corporate Structure,” they plan methods of deception in advance, waaaay in advance. Therefore we always have to be prepared for their tricks, games, lies, and deception. We all know that tricks, games, lies, and deception are components of the White Supremacy virus that Obama is attempting to remove from their brains.

“I can’t be as mad at him anymore for putting in all the work to fool us.”

Okay Andrea, you said “him”, but could you be as mad at “them” if you found out that they have always had a hidden agenda, and was using him to trick us?

Most of us, who know their pattern, are always prepared for the seires of the WS virus attacks, so we can not be tricked, we can’t be surprised. We already knew it was coming, just like they claim they know are type, we know their type.

We already knew that they were going to do what they have always done, maintain suppression of a revolt, maintain suppression the revolution, maintain the standard of white supremacy.

Then, Like Whooaa, one came from among us, who studied. He studied so, so hard. He claims that he found the cure. He swears it. He prayed for it, He thinks he found it.

Obama really has it in his mind that he has found the cure for WS. Let’s remain faithful in God, and not get caught in any tricks though.

As progressives and as black people, I don’t think we have to confine ourselves to a single set of issues. Of course most of us are concerned about the dire conditions in our communities. But I’m also concerned and offended by the Israeli govts treatment of Palestinians. Part of what upsets me is the remarkable parallel between the occupation of Palestinian communities, apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow America. The fact that my country supports the segregationist in this case, offends me. And there are many other issues that are not directly related to black Americans, that also concern me. It’s a long life and a big world. There’s room, I believe, for a diversity of thought and perspective. Just my two cents.

SB, thank you for writing this post. Sometimes we tend to have our heads so far in the clouds that we can’t see any wrong. From time to time (NOT OFTEN), I tend to do the same. Thanks for bringing me back down to earth.

Many of us tend to be like the rodents who followed the Pied Piper. We all know what happened to them.

Some of you people will never be happy until we elect Louis Farrakhan.

Here’s an idea, if you want a president who’s unapologetically pro-black and pro-Africa, MOVE TO AFRICA. Robert Mugabe has made whites second-class citizen and is systematically murdering them and “redistributing” their wealth. Sounds like a utopia for you.

Obama is 50% black (although 99% white culturally), and the country is only 12% black. If we all voted strictly along racial lines (as blacks did this past election), the country would NEVER have a mixed-race or nonwhite president. With blacks self-segregating in nearly every arena, it might seem to you that the USA is a black country but it is not. A president who put the interests of blacks and “the African diaspora” ahead of the white majority would betray the people who made and still make this country work.

The fact that so many black politicians espouse this Afrocentric viewpoint or affiliate themselves with such groups automatically disqualifies them from the highest offices. As long as blacks insist on retaining their own subculture, their own “language”, their own educational and professional niches, and their own politicians, they will always be a sideshow to the mainstream.

Blacks in the USA have two choices: assimilate into the mainstream culture and enjoy the benefits of our society, or segregate yourselves and blame whitey for your problems.